The Roles of Ottomans and Young Turks in the Changes in the Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf gradually attracted the attention of the authoritarian countries of the world in the 17th century, and each of them tried to bring it under its control for some time. Portugal, Nederland, England, and even the Ottoman Empire intended to have active and permanent presence there and exploit the infinite resources of this region. However, the power of the Ottoman Government, which had once robbed a good night’s sleep from the eyes of the other great powers of the world of that time, declined from the 17th century onwards and moved towards destruction. The Berlin Conference put an end to the authority of the Ottoman Empire in 1878. Some years later, in 1912 the government of Young Turks came to power in the Ottoman Turkey with the purpose of strengthening the Turkish nationality and turning it into the majority ethnic group through adjoining the eastern Turk-inhabited lands to the Ottoman Empire. Hence, following its extremely “nationalist Turkish” tendencies, the government of Young Turks gradually began executing an “irredentist” policy. In line with this policy, the Ottoman government entered the First World War alongside Germany with its micro-colonial thoughts. Germany intended to reach the waters of the Persian Gulf with the help of the Ottoman Empire, which was a threat to the benefits of England in the Persian Gulf and India. The execution of young Turks’ irredentism carried in its heart an anti-irredentist policy towards the other nations of the Ottoman Empire, including the Arabs, the Greeks, Bulgarians, and Armenians. Finally, given the passive position of ottomans as to losing the Arab countries on the coastline of the Persian Gulf, the Arab countries dominated by the Ottoman Empire, particularly Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, were freed from their control, and the colonial power of Britain replaced them in these regions. This paper mainly focuses on the reasons for such changes in the region.